On evening of 22 Khordad 1388 (12 June 2009), the Ministry of
Interior based on the final and definitive estimates of the results of
the votes received from the election ballots from nationwide voting
centres, officially awarded Mir-Hossein Mousavi the election win and
first and foremost directly advised Ali Khamenei. Ali Khamenei
accepted Mousavi's victory but with the precondition that Mousavi does
not rush for the announcement of his win so as to avoid causing any
tensions within the government and his supporters.

At the dawn of 23 Khordad 1388 (13 June 2009) a few hours after the
Ministry of Interior had advised Khamenei of Mousavi's win, immediately
after morning prayers, based on a plan - blue printed well in advance
by IRGC, Khamenei was taken from "Beit-e Rahbari (HQ of Supreme
Leader)" in Pasteur Square, Tehran and transferred to a predetermined
location in North of Tehran, in Aghdassieh.

While in transit to North of Tehran, the IRGC command unit deployed at
the HQ's of the Supreme Leader advised Khamenei through Mojtaba
Khamenei (his son) that the reason for this transfer was because of a
"Condition Grey" and the transfer was as per instructions from the
"IRGC Motahari Central Command" unit. During the
transit, the special force battalions 1, 2 and 3 along with the
protection team of Khamenei's family and the Physical Protection Team
in addition to the Check-and-Neutralize Team were completely
transferred from the HQ's of the Supreme Leader to the destination
North of Tehran where Khamenei was headed.

On completion of the transfer of Khamenei, the expansion of the coup
d’état operations (which had started the previous day in very
preliminary form) was actioned throughout the city under code name
"Maneuvre Eghtedar (Authority Maneuver)". Simultaneously with
this surprise maneuver which began to uncover its true nature as being
a coup d’état, military and special forces - coup d’état
units deployed and disperssed throughout the city.
Although20forces behind the coup d’état code named "Maneuver
Authority" all were issued and equipped with black police uniform and
on the surface giving the maneuver tone and image of being run by the
police but the leadership and command was led by a "Council" which
consisted of senior IRGC commanders and the head of the police force,
"Ahmadi-Moghaddam". The majority of the commanders implementing the
maneuver were also commanders of the Revolutionary Guards and were not
police commanders. "Mojtaba" second son of Ali Khamenei who represented
the Supreme Leader's Office was in direct contact with the Council for
the coordination and implementation of the coup. The Council having
predicted resistance by Mir-Hossein Mousavi and his camp had prepared
in advance an initial (work in progress) arrest list which was
completed at later stages of the coup.

It is not clear at this juncture if on 13 June 2009, during the
implementation of the coup in Tehran if in fact Khamenei was completely
unware of the advanced plan for the coup d'etat and just then only
provided with updates and progress reports with regard to the status of
the coup implementation in Tehran but was crystal clear is that
Khamenei through his son Mojtaba was at the time in direct contact with
those in charge of the coup and that he became a supporter of the coup
movement after he was briefed earlier in the day. What is become
increasingly clear is the whole planning for the coup had been a
premeditated plan by Mojtaba but that Mojtaba for public consumption
purposes (and what would possibly become useful at a later stage as
damage control measures) deceived to appear and remain arms-length by
avoiding to have been on record having given the initial instruction to
plan or initiate the coup and falsely give the impression that
he/Mojtaba had only entered the scene and became aware of the coup at a
later stage and only after the coup had become a foregone conclusion by
IRGC and that he/Mojtaba only became a supporter of the coup from this
point onwards.

Kenneth R. Timmerman is Executive Director of the Foundation for
Democracy in Iran.